Most Powerful

• #1 Xi Jinping
  Asia-PacificBeijingChinaGlobalHong KongShaanxiXinjiang Party State ControlPolitical 21st Century State Power Power: 100
  Xi Jinping (born 1953) is a Chinese politician who has served as general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) since 2012, chairman of the Central Military Commission since 2012, and president of the People’s Republic of China since 2013. He became the central figure of China’s leadership by consolidating authority within the Party, expanding ideological discipline, and reshaping the relationship between the state, private capital, and society. Under his leadership, China has pursued ambitious industrial policy, expanded internal security capabilities, and adopted a more assertive posture in regional and global affairs.
• #2 Li Ka-shing
  Hong Kong IndustrialIndustrial Capital Control Cold War and Globalization Industrial Capital Power: 90
  Li Ka‑shing (born 1928) is a Hong Kong business magnate and investor who built one of the most influential conglomerate structures in the modern Chinese‑language business world. Rising from a refugee childhood shaped by war and displacement, he first gained prominence through plastics manufacturing and then expanded decisively into property development, where control of land and cash flow provided a base for larger acquisitions. Through Cheung Kong (Holdings) and Hutchison Whampoa, later reorganized as CK Hutchison and CK Asset, Li assembled a portfolio that included container ports, telecommunications networks, utilities, retail operations, and infrastructure assets across Asia, Europe, and North America. His career is frequently cited as an example of how ownership of essential systems—housing, logistics, energy, and communications—can translate into durable economic power. Li has also been a major philanthropist through the Li Ka Shing Foundation, while remaining a controversial figure in debates about property prices, corporate concentration, and the relationship between Hong Kong’s business elite and political authority.
• #3 Robert Kuok
  Hong KongMalaysia FinancialIndustrialIndustrial Capital Control Cold War and Globalization Finance and WealthIndustrial Capital Power: 90
  Robert Kuok (born 1923) is a business magnate associated with Malaysia and Hong Kong. Robert Kuok is best known for building the Kuok Group across commodity processing and distribution and founding Shangri-La Hotels. This profile belongs to the site’s study of industrial capital control and finance and wealth, where influence depends on controlling systems rather than possessing money alone. In the modern and globalized world, concentrated influence is often exercised through finance, media, regulation, infrastructure, corporate governance, and cross-border market access.
• #4 Xu Jiayin
  ChinaHong Kong FinancialFinancial Network ControlReal Estate 21st Century Finance and Wealth Power: 62
  Xu Jiayin (1958–021) was a real estate developer; founder and former chairman (China Evergrande Group) associated with China and Hong Kong. Xu Jiayin is best known for Building Evergrande into a giant property developer and becoming a symbol of China’s debt-fueled property boom and subsequent crisis. This profile belongs to the site’s study of financial network control and finance and wealth, where influence depends on controlling systems rather than possessing money alone. In the twenty-first century, power frequently travels through digital platforms, data, logistics, attention, cloud infrastructure, and the ability to set terms for other participants in the market.
• #5 C. Y. Tung
  ChinaHong Kong Resource Extraction ControlResources Industrial Finance and Wealth Power: 37
  C. Y. Tung (1912–1982), also known as Tung Chao Yung, was the Chinese shipping magnate who built a vast ocean-going fleet and became one of the most important private actors in the transport infrastructure behind the twentieth-century resource economy. His ships did not extract oil or mine ore, but they moved the materials without which industrial systems could not function. In that sense his power sat at a decisive bottleneck: control over maritime capacity.Tung belongs in a study of power because logistics is never neutral. Whoever can command large-scale shipping tonnage gains leverage over states, oil companies, traders, and industrial consumers. He built wealth not by ruling territory but by owning the channels through which resource economies flowed. His career demonstrates that transport itself can be a form of strategic control.